A Little Blue Dot
by CompanionCube1410
Summary: When Grace sees a little blue dot in the sky, she wonders what it is. It's very far away and it isn't moving. Too far away to be a helicopter. Then, the next morning, she hears a crash. The sound came from the garden. But what is it? How much is she prepared to risk for a little metal ball? WARNING - Contains Chelley.
1. Chapter 1 The Little Blue Dot

**AN/... Hi. This is my first Fanfiction and I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, so please bear with me and enjoy.**

**Chapter 1 - The Blue Dot**

Grace POV - I strolled towards the stall that I was meant to be in charge of. It was the Summer Fare at Del-Moncarlo Grammar School for Exceptional Young Women and each year group was asked to organise and man stall for the day. I was in my third year at Del-Moncarlo Grammar School, after being accepted, in 2008, for my 'over average' result in my Mathematics Exam. As I made my way to the 'Jelly and Ice-Cream Stall', on the far side of the school field, I caught sight of my best friend, Tamara, or Tammy, as she like to be called. Tammy's golden hair fell, smoothly and perfectly, to her shoulders in gentle waves, like a beautiful sheet of silk. I had always been jealous of Tammy's appearance, because it seemed so effortless, and I wished that my hair would be as natural and as flawless as Tammy's was. My hazel eyes met Tammy's sapphire blue one's, and we silently communicated, saying hello and telling each other to meet at the Third-Year's Stall. This was a connection we had always had. We could have whole conversations with each other during class and nobody ever knew. This was definitely an advantage if we were confused or didn't understand anything, because we could then tell the other that we'll explain it after class or tell the other that we didn't get it either.

"Hi," I said, when we met at the stall.

"Hi, what's up?" Tammy said to me. It was not actually a serious question, just a way of greeting.

"Nothing much," I replied. "What about you. You seem kind of panicked. Do you need to be somewhere or something?" She seemed to want to be somewhere else, or _need_ to be somewhere else. It wasn't like her to be so vacant.

"I'm sorry, Grace. I can't help you out with the stall. I need to meet someone. About...something," Tammy told me awkwardly, as if she was holding something back.

"Who?" I asked in a suspicious, yet interested voice.

"Well... Christian Lenning asked my out!" Tammy practically squealed the last part at me.

"That's great!" I said half-heartedly, but she probably didn't realise because she was so absorbed in her thoughts of Christian. "Go and see Christian. Have fun. And don't let him treat you badly, because he'll have me to deal with." The truth was, I liked Christian as well. I wished it was me that he had asked out. However, I was still happy for Tammy. I decided to forget about the whole 'Christian' thing as Tammy walked away. For the next two hours, I was swamped with customers.

When I finally got a break from people constantly thrusting money at me (which was a lot worse than it sounds) I went to sit under one of the biggest trees at the back of the school field. It was a hot summer's day, which was very unusual considering the unpredictable English weather, and I lay down on the grass and looked up through the trees. The sun shining through the branches was like lots of little spotlights settling their gaze on me, their brightness contrasting with the expanse of blue that spread out endlessly above the world, keeping a watchful eye on the happenings on the planet that it protected. Suddenly, a little blue dot appeared in the sky. I thought it was just a bird or an aeroplane at first, but it didn't move, and it seemed too far away to be a helicopter. As I watched it, I wondered what it was. Then I blinked, and it was gone, just as suddenly as it had appeared. What could it have possibly been?

It was there that Tammy found me, lying on the grass, wondering what the blue dot was. She didn't seem to notice my absence of general intelligence, as she chattered on to me about how Christian had told her that they could be friends but nothing more. It was at this moment that I realised how bitterly insignificant our lives actually were. What does it matter is a boy likes us or not? We're going to keep living whatever the outcome. We shouldn't worry about stupid things like boys or hair or makeup or whether we're fat or not. If someone doesn't like us just the way we are then they are not the kind of person we should be friends with, or even in love with. When I made this point to Tammy, she just looked at me like had grown long ears and a fluffy tail.

"What's wrong, Grace? Where did that come from?" she asked, obviously concerned.

"I don't know," I replied, careful not to make myself sound even more insane than she already thought I was. "I was just thinking about life and the bigger picture. If we don't get the boy of our dreams, then he obviously wasn't the one and we won't remember who he was in 10 years time." I watched Tammy's face as her expression changed from thoughtful and confused to admiration.

"I never realised you thought like that. I agree with you, to be honest. It's just fun to obsess over boys, and pretend that you're the prettiest, most attractive girl in the universe sometimes." Tammy sounded a bit sad when she said this, as if she wished, in that moment more than any other, that her fantasies were a reality. Unfortunately they were not, and never would be.

I lay in bed that night, thinking of our conversation and of the blue dot in the sky. Could it have been aliens, or a UFO? What was it? Finally, I decided to Google 'blue light it the sky' to see what came up, and if I was the only one who saw it. I got out my hot pink laptop from on top of my desk, and sat down on my old, worn, wooden bunk bed. Immediately results came up such as 'strange blue light over Arctic Sky 9th Dec 2009' and 'Mystery as spiral _blue light_ display hovers above Norway'. There was nothing that was even remotely like the little blue dot that I had seen and yet I was sure it wasn't anything that would ordinarily be seen in the sky. Someone must have seen something. I tried again, this time searching 'blue dot in the sky' and, once again, none of the results even slightly resembling the dot I had seen. I must have been the only one to notice anything. But why? Why me? What was so special about me? I was just a 14-year-old, teenage girl. I was normal. Why would someone want me to see the dot? And why now? 


	2. Chapter 2 In The Garden

**AN/...Hi. Just so you know, I sort of make up a word in this chapter, so 'mousily' means to be like a mouse, timid and shy, only in a voice. Anyway, enjoy this chapter. It starts to get a bit more interesting soon.**

**Chapter 2 - In My Garden**

Grace POV - In the morning I awoke to the gentle sound of birds singing their morning chorus. The world outside seemed to be waking up with me as I got dressed and made my way down to get some breakfast. As soon as I had got a small breakfast of buttered toast, which was not burned but no quite still bread, just the way I liked it, I headed back up my narrow, winding staircase and towards my room, which was the small one right at the end of the upstairs landing. Today was Friday 22nd July, and the first glorious day of the Summer Holidays. However, today I just couldn't seem to relax. The little blue dot in the sky kept going around and around in my brain, as I tried hopelessly to comprehend what it was. Finally, I decided to call Tammy and ask her what she thought of my little blue dot. My hand slowly reached out for my landline phone, but my brain was still having a debate with itself. One side of it, the rational side, was saying, "You shouldn't ring Tammy. She'll think you've gone crazy. Don't ring her." The other side, the side that I listened to more often than not, was saying, "Of course you should ring her. She'll believe you. You won't figure out anything on your own. Just call her." My fingers closed around the phone, after the long, slow journey to get there, and held it so that I could see the screen. I entered the letter 'T' into the phone and pressed the green button when Tammy's name was highlighted.

"Hi," Tammy said, from the other end of the phone. She had obviously seen the caller ID, because she wouldn't have answered the phone in that way if it was anybody else on the end of the line.

"Hiya, Tammy," I said to the phone. "I really need to talk to you about something. I need you to promise me you won't laugh and that you'll take it seriously. Ok?"

"Ok?" She sounded unsure now. Worried. "What's up?"

"Well," I started. "Yesterday, after I finished on the stall and you were with Christian, I went and just layed down under the big tree, where you found me. I was just staring at the sky and suddenly, BAM! This weird little blue dot appears in the sky. It didn't move, and it was too high up to be a helicopter. I can't figure out what it was. I thought maybe you would know, or at least have some ideas. You always seem to have an answer for everything." When i had finished my story there was silence. I guessed Tammy was thinking. After about five minutes of silence I was starting to think that she had hung up. "Tammy?" I asked the phone. "Tammy?"

"Yea, I'm here." She sounded like she was in shock, and I couldn't blame her. If my best friend had just told me that they had seen a weird blue dot in the middle of a clear _blue_ sky that nobody else had seen, I would be shocked as well.

"So, any ideas?" I asked her, uncertainly.

"To be honest, it seems a bit farfetched to me," she said. I knew I should have listened to the first side of my brain and not called her. She obviously wasn't going to believe me. "But I believe you," she finished. Ok, I admit it, I was wrong. Tammy continued speaking, oblivious to the inevitable fact that I had doubted her. "Maybe it was a balloon," she said. "Or the International Space Station. Or A UFO!" She seemed to be getting a little over excited now.

"Could you please be serious, Tammy," I commanded, slightly exasperated. "It couldn't have been a balloon or the International Space Station, because they both move, and it couldn't have been a UFO because they're fictional _and_ the move!"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry," she said, mousily. "I just got a tiny bit carried away with the whole thing. But, to be honest, I have no idea what it could be. I mean, what could a little blue dot in the sky possibly be?"

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking you!" I remarked, starting to get a bit frustrated.

"Ok, don't get so-" CRASH! "What was that?" Tammy asked warily.

"I don't know. It came from the garden. Listen, I've got to go and check it out. My parents went to wok about an hour ago, so only I'm her. Can you get over here as soon as possible please?" I asked Tammy.

"Sure. I'm on my way!"

Causiously, I made my way down the stairs and out into the garden. What I found terrerfied my. There, in the middle of my perfecty kept garden, was a giant whole. And in that whole was a little metal ball. It had one blue eye and looked like it had just been used as a football. It has dents in it's less than shiny body, if that's what it was, and a slight crack in what I guessed to be an electronic eye.

"Hello. I'm Wheatley!" It said brihtly and in a distinctly british accent.


	3. Chapter 3 The Metal Ball

**AN/...I hope you enjoyed the last chapter and that you will enjoy this chapter as well. So, without further ado, enjoy!**

**Chapter 3 - The Metal Ball**

Grace POV - What was this thing? I had never seen anything like this, ever. Was it a robot? It looked like some sort of robot, but it couldn't be. Things like this just didn't exist in this world. It was too paranormal. Too weird. Too real.

"What are you?" I asked it carefully, unsure of its intelligence and gender.

"I am Wheatley. I am a core from Aperture Science Laboritories. I fell from space after being hit by this big, white, flying bird thing. It was weird and on the side of it was the word 'Atlantis'. I dunno what it means though. Do you?" Wheatley said this in a rush. I was surprised that the 'core' could even talk, let alone talk so fast. Its blue eye looked straight at me and its handles, if that's what they were, moved like eyebrows, displaying Wheatley's emotions to me.

"It sounds like you were knocked through the earth's atmosphere by the last space shuttle as it landed. Today is July 22nd. It landed yesterday," I told Wheatley, making sure to hide my fear. I was scared of Wheatley, because he was the unknown. It is only natural for humans to be scared of the unknown.

DING DONG. The doorbell. Tammy was here.

I practically ran through the house, with Wheatley shouting after me, "Hold on! Where are you going? What was that?". I opened my red, aluminium door to let Tammy into my home. As soon as I let her in, she started questioning me.

"What was that crash in your garden? What's going on? Why do you look so worried? GRACE?! What is going on?" She sounded frantic. I didn't realise how much I had worried her. I looked into her confused sapphire eyes and started forming the words in my head that I was going to say to her.

"Calm down, Tammy. There is nothing majorly wrong. All it is is that a little metal ball has fallen out of space and landed in my garden. Calm down." At this she just got even more frantic.

"A...a metal...that it MAJOR!" She was practically shouting at me now. "What are you going to do with it? Your parents can't find out. They'd freak."

"One: It is He. Two: _HIS_ name is Wheatley. And three: I'm going to keep him in my room until we figure out what to do," I retaliated.

"Ok then. You seem to have this all planned out. I'll help you." She had finally calmed down and her being calm had resulted in me being calm.

"Oi, where d'ya go?" Wheatley shouted from the garden.

"Who's that?" Tammy asked. I would have thought that would have been obvious, but apparently it wasn't.

"Wheatley," I said simply.

As I lead Tammy into the garden, she seemed to get more and more nervous. I guess I could understand why. She was about to meet a robot, well Core, that she has previously thought did not and could not exist. I would be nervous to if I were her. As we stepped out of my glass double doors and into the garden she gasped. Wheatley was staring at us through his one cracked eye.

"Finally. I've been waiting here for ages. Could one of you please put me on something clean? I hate this brown stuff, whatever it is," Wheatley said, directing his speech more to me than to Tammy. I wondered why and looked over at Tammy. Immediately I could see Wheatley's reasoning. Tammy was staring, wide eyed and still, at Wheatley. She was like a statue, which I took to mean that she was very shocked to see Wheatley.

Wheatley POV - The girl just stared at me, like a cryogenically frozen test subject when they weren't expecting to be frozen. She didn't move. I started to think that she had died on the spot or something, until she blinked. Surely I wasn't that scary, was I? The other girl, the one with the hazel eyes and dirty blonde hair, walked over to the first girl.

"Tammy, are you ok?" she asked. I guessed this must have been the girl's name, so I shouted her name at her, to see if she would respond.

"TAMMY!" I shouted. What was wrong with her? She didn't seem much younger than the mute girl back in aperture. Maybe she was mute too. The mute test subject hadn't been scared of me. She had been my friend.

"Is she mute?" I asked the girl that was not Tammy.

"Is she what?" She returned my question with a question. It always annoyed me when someone did that. Why not just answer the question. Honestly, that what the point of asking a question. To get an answer.

"Why can't you just answer my question" I asked her as politely as I could manage.

"Because I don't know what you mean by mute," she answered. At least she answered with an answer this time.

"A mute," I said calmly, "is a person or living thing that can't make a sound."

"Oh." She sounded a bit embarrassed. "No, she isn't a mute. She's just shocked. She has never seen anything like you before. I'm Grace, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Grace," I replied formally. I felt the need to be formal since I didn't know these humans very well. I wondered why I was still positioned on this weird brown stuff. It didn't look very nice. "Where is the management rail?" I asked Grace.

"I don't know what you mean, but I don't think we have one anyway." No management rail? Then how were us cores meant to get around.

"In that case, would you please put me on something cleaner. I hate this brown stuff." Grace giggled at this.

"That 'brown stuff' as you call it, if mud. Plants grow in it and worms live in it." She said. I wondered what worms and plants were, but it didn't feel like the appropriate time to ask. Finally, Grace took me inside the big, solid box think that was beside us. I guessed this must be where Grace lived. Tammy followed us, like a dead person walking, unsure and unsteady. Grace placed me on a soft thing, but I didn't know what it was. It was then that I started to explain about Aperture, and GLaDOS, and the little mute test subject.


	4. Chapter 4 A New Plan Or Lack Of

**A Little Blue Dot 4**

**AN/... Hi. Thanks to those who have been reading A Little Blue Dot. I'm going to be on holiday for the next week so I won't be able to update for a while. You'll just have to wait. Anyway, enjoy Chapter 4.**

**Chapter 4 - The Plan (or lack of)**

Grace POV - Tammy and I just sat on the sofa facing Wheatley, who I had positioned in the armchair, and listened as Wheatley told us about his previous life in a place called 'Aperture Science Laboratories'. Apparently he had, in the last few years, awoken a test subject, which was a human girl. A test subject was a person used by GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, and an evil robot of some kind) to experiment on the intelligence of humans. Wheatley and the girl had tried to escape, but their attempt hadn't worked. Wheatley had been plugged into the mainframe (which I gathered must of been some kind of super computer) in order to help the mute girl escape, but the mainframe had corrupted Wheatley before he had the chance to help her escape. GLaDOS was put into a potato (don't know why) and the girl was kept inside the facility. Corrupted by the mainframe, Wheatley had been made to test. And test. And test. This cause the girl injury, but apparently he couldn't stop. Eventually, there was a big fight between Wheatley (the corrupted version) and the mute girl , and Wheatley was released into space. He had been there ever since, with no way of getting out of space. Until now. At least, I think that was what he said. He was chattering away so contently that I didn't want to stop him to ask questions and check the facts.

"And here I am," Wheatley finished at last. At this point there was a very awkward silence because nobody knew what to say. Finally, I thought that I should say something.

"Wow, Wheatley," I said. "Your last few years have been...eventful."

"That is one way of putting it, yeah," Wheatley replied, cheerfully.

"So what now?" I asked him, unsure of whether it was a good idea to even ask.

"I was just thinking about that," he said. "And I came up with a really awesome idea that I think is actually quite good."

"Ok, then." I wasn't sure whether I wanted to know about the idea because Wheatley already seemed quite eccentric. But I was beginning to like Wheatley, and friends are there to help each other.

"Well, how about we go and rescue the mute girl back in Aperture. We were really quite good friends before I was corrupted by the mainframe and I know how horrible it is down there and how horrible GLaDOS is. That is if she's even still alive." He mumbled the last part, as if he really couldn't bear it if the girl was dead or trapped in Aperture forever.

"I'll help you, Wheatley." I told him, slightly worried about what I was getting myself in for. But Wheatley and I were now friends.

Tammy had been sat quietly beside me for the whole conversation with Wheatley. I think she was still a bit shocked, but she seemed to be coming back to her senses now, so I stopped worrying about her so much.

"So what's your plan?" I inquired to Wheatley.

"Plan? Plan!? What I meant to have a plan? I thought we could go in there and just take it as it comes." I was starting to gather something about Wheatley now. He was a bit of an idiot.

"I take it that this is going to be dangerous, then?" I was starting to get a bit scared of what I had agreed to do.

"Yes," Wheatley said. "Almost certain serious injuries and probable death."

"Oh."

"Would it help if I came?" Tammy asked from her position next to me. It was the first time she had spoken in nearly an hour.

"NO!" I practically shouted. "I don't want you to risk your life as well. It would crush your mum. Don't. Please." I was terrified now. I couldn't let Tammy take this risk, not after everything her family had been through in the past few years, and especially because I could never bear to lose her. The thought of her dying and it being my fault, filled me with horror. I couldn't let her do that. I just couldn't.

The next few hours were full of planning and preparation. We were planning to do this on Sunday. That gave us a day and a bit to be ready. I had already booked a crash course in self defence for tomorrow, not that it woud be much help if GLaDOS was as bad as Wheatley said she was. However, it would give me some reassurance and confidence. After all, until we got the mute girl, I would be the only one who could defend us. Wheatley was just a little metal ball. How much damage could he possibly do?

Wheatley POV - I felt kind of guilty about asking this young girl to help me find my mute friend, but what else could I do? I was a core. I couldn't move, I couldn't run, I couldn't fight. The girls were my only hope, and I was sure I would be glad that I asked them for help once we had got my mute test subject out of Aperture and safe.


	5. Chapter 5 Preparation

**Chapter 5 - Preparation**

Grace Pov - It was Saturday morning and I headed off to my self-defence class. My parents were at a wedding for the weekend (one of their friends from college) and I had been left alone. My Aunt Tessa was meant to have come down to 'look after' me, not that I needed it, but she had become ill at the last minute and was not able to come. Therefore, I had to trust my phone's built in navigation system and my ability to read a map. After getting lost at least twice, I finally found the small sports hall where the self-defence class was held. (We only moved into town last month and I still couldn't find my way around). The instructor, a tall, strong looking, blonde haired ex-boxer, got us to start with a simple warm up, jogging around in a circle and then doing various stretches to loosen our muscles and get our hearts pumping. Apart from me, there were three other people there: a middle-aged women who looked like she was desperately trying to get fit and feel young again, a young man, probably early 20s, with a large build, and an elderly man, who looked as if he may need a knee replacement. After the warm-up, the instructor, who's name I had learned to be Bradley, showed us some simple kicks. Whilst we were practicing these in pairs (I was paired with the middle-aged woman), I thought about our plan to rescue the mute girl. We were planning to get into Aperture and find the girl. I would go and distract GLaDOS, and Wheatley would go and get her. Then Wheatley and the girl would collect me and we would run for it, and get out hopefully unharmed.

I snapped out of my daydream and mentally rejoined the class. By body seemed to have been working independently from my brain because now we had moved on to punching and blocking. I was actually quite good at this self-defence stuff. When I started to focus, I really got in the zone. Kick, block, punch, punch, block, kick, punch, punch, punch, block. We carried on like this for about 15 minutes. By the end I was the only one left standing. The elderly man had started to get an asthma attack and had to sit out to try and save us all a trip to A & E. The middle-aged women had somehow managed to brake one of her toes and the man obviously did not have as much stamina as I thought he would.

At the end of the class, I wondered home slowly, stopping at the newsagents to get a sandwich and a packet of cheese and onion crisps for an afternoon snack. However, the food tasted like dust in my mouth as I carried on walking, terrified of the next day. What if everything didn't go to plan? What if I couldn't keep GLaDOS distracted for long enough? My mind spun with the infinite number of possibilities of things that could go wrong. There was only one thing I was sure of. Though I hadn't known Wheatley very long and I had never met GLaDOS or been inside Aperture, there was a very big possibility of our plan completely failing. And if this happened, I knew from that moment onwards, that I would be willing to risk my life to get that poor girl out of a life of slavery and labour in Aperture.

Wheatley POV - Grace was out at her self defence class so there was nothing much I could do but go over and over the plan. Thinking of my little mute friend made me wish that I had never betrayed her, although I wish that every day of my existence. There was not much else I could do without my management rail, so I was just stuck on a chair, thinking. Suddenly, I heard a key turn in the lock in the front door. I knew it would be Grace, but at that moment it occurred to me that if an intruder came into the house, I would be able to do nothing to stop them. I wouldn't be able to hide, and I, myself, would probably get stolen, since to most people I looked like a little, valuable, metal ball.

"Hi, I'm home," Grace called from the front door. Tammy came running down the stairs from where she had been trying to find out more about Aperture on Grace's laptop.  
"Hi. How did it go?" Tammy asked Grace.  
"Great," she said. "I was the youngest person there. Everyone else was over the age of 20. I mean, one man looked about 80. On the bright side, I won against all of them. I feel ready for tomorrow." I didn't know if she was actually ready mentally for what was in store but I wouldn't really expect anyone to be ready anyway, bearing in mind what GLaDOS makes humans do there.  
"Hi, Grace," I called, hoping that she would come and get me from that bloody armchair. I had been stuck in it since yesterday and I would quite like to see a change of scenery. Hopefully, once we'd rescued my mute friend, she would take me on what humans call a holiday. It's when a human, or a group of humans, go to a place which they don't inhabit. It sounded fun.

After about 15 minutes, Grace and Tammy entered the room in which I was (what they called the 'living room').  
"So, do you want to hear the good news or the bad news?" I asked them.  
"I didn't know you had any news," Tammy said.  
"Well, I been thinking," I told them.  
"Sounds dangerous," Grace said.  
"Not at all," I told her. "Every living organism thinks, and none of them have died from it yet. Anyway, the good news is that you can now defend yourself, Grace. The bad news is, it won't do much good with an opponent like GLaDOS. But if you don't give up, hopefully you will survive."


	6. Chapter 6 Descending

**Chapter 6 - Descending**

Grace POV - Today was the day. The day we descended to hell (at least, that's how Wheatley described it). The day we went to Aperture. I awoke early because of my anticipation and terror. Sleep was necessary but extremely difficult. I got up and got dressed in a simple strappy-top and a pair of three-quarter length jeans which I find easy to move in. My favourite pair. I never bother making my bed because I know I'll just be sleeping in it again the next night, so what's the point? Today was no different. I left the wardrobe door open, the window open and my bed unmade. When I was ready, I went downstairs to get some breakfast.  
"Morning," Wheatley called from the living room.  
"Morning," I called back. Then I proceeded to the kitchen, to get some breakfast. I knew it was important for me to have something to eat, but I just couldn't bring myself to put the food in my mouth. I knew it would be a disadvantage later, but I just couldn't do it.  
*DING DONG*  
Tammy was here. We didn't want her to come with us (Wheatley and I) in case there was an emergency and she would be at home to let us back in. Anyway, I knew it would be dangerous and I didn't want to put her at risk. It was bad enough that I would be going. And if I got hurt, what would I say to my parents about how I had done it? Even though Wheatley didn't mention it, I was sure I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about Aperture. I don't think people would believe me if I did anyway.

"Hi," I said to Tammy when I opened the door for her.  
"Heya," She said. "When we going?" This was the problem. Although she knew we didn't want her to come, she still thought she could change our minds (if Wheatley had a mind?).  
"Come in," I told Tammy, ignoring her previous question. She came in and sat down on the sofa in the living room. Carefully, I closed the door and went and joined her on the sofa.  
"Tammy, as we told you before, you're not coming. You'll be more use here. And I don't want to put you at even more risk." I knew I was being very stubborn about the subject, but I felt very strongly about not letting her come with us.  
"You're not 'putting me at risk', I'm volunteering. There's a difference," She said.  
"Still NO!" I practically shouted at her. "If you got hurt. If you died... It would be all my fault. I couldn't live with that. So please, PLEASE, stay here. For my sake." Finally, the begging and the sob story won her over. She nodded, such a tiny nod I hardly noticed it.  
"Ok," she mumbled reluctantly.

We were there. In a corn field. Facing a little wooden shack. I had said goodbye earlier, with much crying, and told her what to tell my parents if I...if anything happened to me. The little wooden shack in front of me was old. The brown paint peeled off the wood, like a banana skin being pulled from its fruit. The roof had distinct holes where some tiles were missing and the wood that the shack was made from was clearly rotting. I was holding Wheatley in one hand, and had my other hand resting in the door. There was no handle so I assumed that you pushed the door, however, as much as I knew I'd have to sooner or later, I couldn't bring myself to push it. I was terrified.

Wheatley POV - I couldn't understand why Grace didn't just push open the door. All she had to do was push. What was so hard about that?  
"Would you please just PUSH THE BLOODY DOOR?" I shouted after a while. I was fed up of us just staring at the door and the sooner we got in there the sooner I could be on my management rail and move of my own free will. "PUSH IT!" I shouted again. Finally, she pushed open the door and walked inside. She stopped and gasped. I guess she wasn't expecting the polished, round elevator with the lit up buttons and the clean glass. After what felt like an hour she finally entered the elevator and looked out.  
"Press the button that says '-2'" I told her. Hesitantly, she pressed the button and looked out over the wheat field as the door closed around us and we started to descend.


	7. Chapter 7 Discoveries

AN/...Please review because I'm sad I only have 3 reviews. But please enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 7 - Discoveries

Grace POV - The darkness seemed to ascend around us, yet we were in an immune bubble where it couldn't touch us. It took a few short seconds to arrive at level -2, since we had been on level 0. As the doors opened, it dawned on me that I may have seen the light of day for the last time. I stepped out, aware that I was walking straight into Her layer. I didn't even like speaking or thinking Her name, for the evil she is and has caused to humans just like me. Or so Wheatley has told me.

"Look up and place me on the management rail above us," Wheatley said from my arms, waking me from my trance. I looked up, and saw the management rail which Wheatley was constantly talking about. Unsure of how to connect him, I reached up and held Wheatley up to his management rail. Instantly, he sped up and down in a short line, seemingly testing the rail.

"Yahooooo!" He yelled, as he sped around, clearly happy to be on his management rail again. "Remember," He said, suddenly becoming very serious. "She is evil. Dodge the claws, distract her, and don't die." Easier said than done, I thought sadly. Then, seemingly as an afterthought, he said, "Good luck," and sped off through a little hole level with his management rail to find his girl.

I had no idea where I was going or where She was, but I thought that I should stay hidden until She realised we were here. That way, I would have less of a chance of getting hurt. I was standing on a polished, grey, tiled floor, surrounded by walls that were grey and rounded upwards like a dome. There was nowhere to hide. So much for that plan.

"Hello," said a voice. It sounded like it came from the centre of the room and above me. I looked up. And there, hanging from the ceiling, was a giant robot thing. She had a metal arm that connected to her 'head', if you could even call it that. Her head was rectangular, and had a little yellow circle of light in the middle. The light seemed to be her eye, constantly following me. Watching me.

"Hello little human," She said politely, repeating her greeting. Though it was polite, her voice had a menacing edge to it. I was scared. Trapped. Like a goldfish in a bowl, being stared at through the glass. "What are you doing here?" She added, even more menacingly. Good, she asked a question. Maybe I could keep her talking.

"I don't really know," I replied. "I just saw the wooden shack and wondered what was inside. I went in to look and here I am." Oh, great answer Grace, i thought to myself. An evil super computer is really going to believe that. "Who are you?" I added, hoping a question could start a conversation.

"I am GLaDOS," She half-whispered, evilly. "Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System. And I know you just lied to me. You have one more chance to tell me the truth." I knew I couldn't tell Her about Wheatley. What did that mean anyway? What could she even do if I told her another lie? There was nothing that I could see that she could use to hurt me. And she probably couldn't stop the lift so I couldn't get trapped. I decided to risk it and tell her another lie. This one would hopefully be more believable.

"Ok, I was lying the first time," I said, forcing myself to sound confident and hiding my fear. "I actually came because my Dad used to work here. He died and I just want to know more about him." Surely this place couldn't be that old, with its spotless appearance.

"Lying again," She said, in a fake sad voice. "How many times are you going to lie before I finally get the truth out of you?" Then, suddenly, something hit me. It threw me across the room. I hit the wall, about half way up, and slid to the ground. I couldn't breathe. My lungs stopped working. There was no pain, just suffocation, as I desperately tried to take a breath. I looked at where I had been standing, just moments ago, to see what had hit me. A giant, metal claw had materialised and was connected to Her, obviously under her control. Finally, some air found its way into my lungs. I gasped.

"Now will you tell me the truth?" She asked. I didn't know what to do.

Wheatley POV - I went as fast as possible along my management rail, searching Test Camber by Test Chamber, walkway by walkway, floor by floor. Desperation was creeping into my system now because I knew I didn't have long. GLaDOS would destroy Grace if I didn't find my little test subject and get back to her soon. Where was she? My test subject. Floor after floor I searched. I had just made it to floor -123 when I heard something. It was just a small sound, almost incomprehensible, but it was there. I froze. *Bounge* There it was again, coming from my left. I flew towards it, as fast as my management rail would allow. What was it? Please let it be my test subject. Please please please please please!


	8. Chapter 8 Lost And Found

Chapter 8 - Lost And Found

Grace POV - I froze. What was I meant to do? I couldn't tell Her that Wheatley was here. She would kill him. But if I didn't, She would hurt me, maybe even kill me. Finally, I decided to risk myself. Wheatley and his girl were more important than me. They would know how to defeat Her. How to kill Her. Me, well, I'm just a worthless little teenager with no significance in the world apart from being one of many teenage girls.

"Still debating whether to tell me the truth or not are we?" Her voice cut through my thoughts, like a knife cutting through a piece of flesh. "Maybe I can make up your mind for you?" I knew I should have moved, should have run, but my feet were glued to the floor in fear. Unmoving. Inanimate.

*WHAM*

The impact of the claw hitting my face sent me flying across the room once again. But it didn't hurt. There was no pain. Only terror. I was defenceless. I could do nothing to save myself.

"Now will you tell me?" Her voice was getting more evil to my ears. My bleeding, lifeless body rested limply on the ground.

"No," I managed to gasp through the immense pain that my brian was now registering. Feeling was returning to me. I was able to speak. Able to move. I could feel warm liquid trickling down the side of my face. Blood. Suddenly I felt something make contact with my chest. Something sharp.

Wheatley POV - I raced along my management rail towards the sound. Please, I begged fate. A white object flew through the air in front of me. But it wasn't a white object. It was her. I had found her. My girl. My test subject. My friend. As she saw me, a look of recognition entered her eyes. Then a mixture of surprise and relief spread across her face.

"Come on," I called to her. "I can get us out of here. Come ON!" She finally seemed to realise what I wanted her to do and made her way across the test chamber to reach me. "Follow me," I said, to reenforce what I wanted her to do. She was just as I remembered in her white tank top with 'Aperture' written across the front. Her brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, as always, and her orange trousers hadn't changed. I started along my management rail towards the nearest lift. Once or twice along the way I had to hack a door to open it (smash it through) but eventually we arrived at the lift. All the time I had been filling her in on the situation with Grace and Tammy and how I had got out of space. She looked shocked in some places but now she just looked worried. Probably for Grace's safety, as she knew how dangerous GLaDOS could be. We entered the lift and she pressed the button marked '-2' with her lovely, delicate looking finger. Of course she was anything but delicate, having survived in Aperture all these years. The lift started traveling upwards. It felt so slow, but that was probably because we were in a hurry. She had taken me down from my management rail and was now holding me. So far, everything had gone as planned.

Grace POV - I knew what had hit me, and I knew what it had done. The blade of the knife had cut through my chest and made contact with my heart. In that moment I knew I would never see the light of day again. And now here I am, in this moment of unstoppable death. I remember my short life. I remember my dad taking me to the top of a hill near where we live, and showing me the stars. He said that you couldn't really see them properly because of light pollution, but at the age of only 7 years, I thought it was the most beautiful sight on earth. I remember my mother taking me shopping on my 13th birthday, showing me lovely dresses and skinny jeans, telling me I could have whatever I wanted, because I would never turn into a teenager again. I remember all the christmases and birthdays I spent with my family, in my Grandma's little house in the trees. I remember the songs and the presents and the food. And finally I remember Tammy. The most amazing, kind, perfect friend anyone could wish for. I think how we told her to stay behind, and how much I thank God that she did. I couldn't bear it of she died for this. In this place. And I wish I could have spent more time with her. Now I am brought back to the horrible reality that I am living now. There is no pain. No terror. I feel peaceful. I am sinking through the water of the ocean, my favourite thing I ever visited. Orcas and dolphins and fish are swimming around me, all at peace in the perfect place to which I am traveling. I hit the bottom and the light begins to fade. Through all this I hear a voice.

"Grace," it shouts, desperation filling it. And then darkness devours me, and I am at peace.

Wheatley POV - We reached Her layer only about 5 minutes after the lift started ascending, but when we reached it, I knew we were too late. Grace was lying, motionless on the floor, in a pool of blood, a giant blade piercing her heart. She wasn't breathing. I wanted to go to her. To save her. But my girl was still holding me, and I couldn't go anywhere.

"Grace," I shouted, desperation filling my voice. It was my fault she was dead. She had come here to help me. If it hadn't been for me she would have still been alive. But GLaDOS had heard me. She spun round to face us, her yellow optic meeting perfectly with my blue one. "Run," I said to the girl. And she did. Towards the lift, as fast as her tired legs would carry her. We reached the lift and she turned around to look at GLaDOS through the glass. It was only then that I realised GLaDOS had been trying to kill us. A lifeless claw lay by the entrance to the glass lift and She was shouting after us.

"One day I will get my little test subject back," She shouted evilly. And then my test subject pressed the '0' button and we were ascending once again.


	9. Chapter 9 Humanity

Chapter 9 - Humanity

Wheatley POV - It was only a short ride to the surface. I didn't think anything could go wrong. But, of course it did. The lift stopped at floor '-1'. The doors didn't open. She had stopped us.

"Quick," I half shouted to Chell. "Plug me into the lift. I should be able to hack into the lift operating system and get us out!" Chell did as I asked, a little reluctantly. I don't think she liked the idea of letting me go. I nearly got it. Almost there. Yes! The lift started moving upwards again. But then I started to feel a little tingly feeling. At first it was nothing, but soon it had spread through me, which was weird because I was a core. This sort of thing doesn't happen to cores. It just doesn't.

Chell POV - I watched as Wheatley seemed to start to vibrate. A little at first, and then a lot. I could hardly see him; he was just a little ball of blurry blue. And through all this we just kept going up. We reached the top pretty quickly, and the lift doors opened. I looked out at freedom, something I could hardly remember. I knew I had been free once, but that was in a different time. A different world. Now I'm free. Then I remembered Wheatley. I turned back towards him, but the little metal ball was no longer there. In it's place was a human. A fully functioning, tall, male. He stood up.

"Turn around. I've seen too much," I said to Wheatley. A look of shock spread across his face. I kept my eyes on his face to avoid seeing his naked body. Thats when I realised. I hadn't spoken in a very long time. Wheatley thought I was a mute. So did GLaDOS. No one had even guessed that I had the ability to speak.

"You..." Wheatley stammered. "You...can speak?" He could hardly talk with the shock of the idea.

"Yes," I said to him gently. It was so nice to hear my own voice again. "Wheatley, my name is Chell," I told him. Just as I said this, the lift which we had just left spat out some clothes. It seemed that even GLaDOS couldn't bear the thought of a naked, human Wheatley standing outside the entrance to Aperture. It was only a white T-shirt, blue jeans and white boxers. Nothing special. Wheatley looked at them with a confused expression.

"How do I get these things on?" Wheatley said, looking curiously at the boxers.

"You see the holes?" I asked him. "Put one of your legs through each of them and pull them up. Do the same for the trousers." He did as he was told and within 5 minutes I could look at the front of him again. His human body had skin of shiny golden brown, and he looked strong but not muscular. His short, sandy-blonde hair bounced around on his head, and his fringe was to one side, the left.

"Is it ok if I leave the shirt for the moment?" He asked me hesitanty, questioning whether it was appropriate.

"I should think so," I said. Then we turned and started walking. There had to be a town around here somewhere.

Wheatley POV - We started walking. I had no idea where we were going but my gir- I mean Chell seemed to have a plan, so I just followed. We had got about 50 metres away from the entrance to that awful place when I heard a rustle in the grass behind me. Tammy stood up and looked at me. Thats when I remembered Grace.

"Where is she?" Tammy shouted at me. At my side, Chell seemed to realise what was going on. "Who are you?" Of course she wouldn't recognise me as a human.

"It's me, Wheatley. GLaDOS turned me human. Tammy I'm sorry," I shouted gently back, unsure of what else to say to her.

"GLaDOS killed her didn't she?" Tammy asked, as a horrified expression crossed her face. I couldn't answer. Then, with a determined expression, Tammy turned and entered Aperture.


	10. Chapter 10 Revenge

Chapter 10 - Revenge

Tammy POV - I ran towards the little hut from which they had come, unsure of what was inside. All I knew was that Grace was down there. Alone. Dead. I couldn't leave her there. Blind hatred filled my being. I hated GLaDOS. She would pay for what she did to Grace. I entered the wooden hut to reach, to my immense surprise, a shiny, sterile, white inside of a lift. Quickly, I climbed into it, aware that the man who claimed to be Wheatley was trying to stop me. My mind flashed back to all the plans Wheatley and ...Gr...ace... had made before coming to this place.

"GLaDOS will be on floor -2" I remembered Wheatley saying. I jabbed the button marked '-2' and the doors closed just as 'Wheatley' got to me, blocking him from my revenge. He couldn't stop me now. No one could.

Wheatley POV - The lift doors closed just as I reached her, and I knew there was nothing I could do to save her until the lift rejoined myself and Chell at ground level.

"She'll be ok," Chell tried to reassure me, although she looked worried too.

"Its my fault," I said, my voice full of regret. "I convinced them to help me find you. Its my fault Grace is dead and my fault that Tammy is going to get hurt, maybe even killed as well."

Tammy POV - The lift doors opened onto a giant dome-shaped room with polished grey tiled walls and floor. Then I saw her. Lying, lifeless in the middle of the floor, was her body. Grace. I would never hear her voice again, never see life in her beautiful eyes. All of a sudden, a new wave of grief and anger hit me. I wanted to kill GLaDOS. No. I wanted to destroy GLaDOS.

"Another one come to play?" a voice from above me spoke. It was a female voice, undoubtedly belonging to GLaDOS. I looked up, and a bright yellow light met my gaze. It seemed to belong to a metal head, to act as an eye, but i didn't care about appearances. Ultimately, i wanted her destroyed. I ran forward, trying to get out of range of the long metal arm that snaked from Her metal frame. However, it caught me by the ankle as I ran. Surprisingly quickly, I flipped over and landed flat on my back on the ground. For a few seconds, all air was knocked out of my lungs. As soon as I regained the power to control my breathing, I got back onto my feet. This time, when the arm came, I dodged it, and remained ok. I ran. As fast as I could, round and round the room, trying to build up speed and dodge the arm at the same time. Then, when I was ready, I ran straight towards GLaDOS, and I flung myself upwards towards her metal frame. With my finger tips, I felt a metal rail, and I grabbed onto it, holding on for dear life. As I made a quick evaluation of my surroundings, I discovered that I was hanging from the side of what seemed to be Her neck. I swung myself around, using momentum to position myself on top of her 'neck'. She tried to shake me off, but I remained strong. Then I remembered my pocket-knife. I had brought it with me incase of emergency. Nimbly, I fished the object from my denim jacket pocket and flipped it so that the blade was ready for action. Then I began to cut. Wire after wire, any part of Her that I could get my hands on, I cut. Until there was nothing left. And yet She was still moving. In my absent moment, She threw me to the floor and sent me flying across the room with her almighty arm. I couldn't breath. I couldn't think. In the moments that follow I vaguely remembered seeing GLaDOS's body go limp. She was gone. In the second before I lost my consciousness, I saw Grace. Fear was in her eyes. Fear and worry and pain. But she was gone, and no one could bring her back. No one.

Wheatley POV - Finally the lift returned to the surface and Chell and I rushed inside. I punched the button labeled '-2' and willed the lift to go down faster. After what felt like an hour, we finally reached the correct floor. The sight that met my optics was heart-braking. At least thats how I think humans describe it. Grace was laying, dead, in the middle of the floor. And Tammy. She was limp against the wall, a pool of blood cushioning her head. She was unconscious, and only just alive. I felt like my heart was being torn from my newly formed body. However, one thing relieved me of some of my looming worries. GLaDOS. She was limp. She was in pieces. She was gone.

I rushed over to Tammy and gently picked her up. She was cold, and broken, and beautiful.

"We've got to get her out of here," I called desperately to Chell.

"And leave her?" She replied, indicating to Grace.

"We may have to," I said regretfully.

"No. We can't. Not here. Not with Her." With that, Chell grabbed Grace by her cold, limp arm, and started to drag her to the lift. Chell was struggling, but I had my arms full with Tammy, so I couldn't help her. We reached the lift, and Chell punched the button marked '0'. We started to accend.

"Wheatley?" Tammy murmured vacantly.

"Its ok," I told her gently. "You are going to be ok."


	11. Chapter 11 The Coloured Dots

Chapter 11 - The Coloured Dots

Tammy POV - When I woke, I was back in the field. Hard soil supported my body, but my head rested on something soft, and a gentle hand stroked my forehead. Carefully, I opened my eyes, unsure of how my body would react. Wheatley was looking down on me; the blue of his eyes told me it really was him. "What happened?" I murmured. "I was in Aperture. I was with GLaDOS. What happened to her? How did I get out here?" My voice was weak and yet with strength in my tone.

"Darling," the girl with him said. "Hi. I'm Chell." Was this her? The one Wheatley had gone back for? How could it be? He had said she couldn't talk. She must have deciphered the expression of shock that crossed my face, because she went on to say, "I am the girl Wheatley came back for. You were unconscious when we found you with...found you. She is gone. You must have shut her down somehow. Anyway, you have quite a few injuries so be careful when you try and move. And...I'm sorry. About your friend." She looked down at the ground beside her. I followed her gaze. Thats when I noticed her body, beautiful and ever, still, lifeless on the ground a few metres away from me. I struggled to get up, to go to her, but Wheatley held me down.

"You won't do anything except hurting yourself further if you go to her," he said. I gave up struggling and just looked at her. Her perfectly brushed hair was in knots of blood and her skin was white, as if she was frozen and could be awoken at any moment. But that wasn't going to happen. Because she was dead. Grace was dead.

Wheatley POV - The look on Tammy's face as she looked at Graces body was heartbreaking. It was as if her body was too shocked and full of grief even to shed a tear. But I...we...had to get them away from here. Grace had to be taken back to her parents, and so did Tammy. Gently, I reached out and touched Tammy, hopefully reassuringly, on the arm. I was still getting used to having a human body, but it was slowly becoming normal for me. Gently, i tried to help Tammy to her feet. She was frail, breakable in her current state.

"Tammy?" I asked, hesitantly. "Tammy, we need to go home." She gave me no response. I quickly shot a 'help-me' look at Chell, who came and stood by my side.

"Tammy, darling," she said gently. "We have to go, Tammy." Carefully, she tugged on Tammy's arm. She responded but robotically, getting to her feet with the help of Chells supporting hands. No look of pain crossed her face. She must have been numb with the pain of grief. When she was on her feet, Tammy was limp, like a standing rubber representation of herself. Absently, she responded to Chell's action and shuffled her feet to face the direction that Chell was pulling her in, but her gaze never left Grace's face, cold and empty, frozen forever with frightened eyes and tense features.

Swiftly, I pulled Grace's lifeless body into my arms. It was cold, but not like it had been in cooled. It was a different kind of cold. She felt hard and yet soft at the same time, like her skin hadn't yet completely drained of all of its moisture and warmth. I looked up to see Chell staring at me expectantly. It was then that I realised that I had no idea where I was going.

Chell POV - I watched Wheatley, expecting him to start walking in a direction. He didn't move. His eyes were vacant, in some way. It was like he was desperately trying to remember which way he had come but couldn't quite find the way on the map that was his memory.

"Don't you know where we are going?" I asked him.

"Errrr...Well...It could be that way," he said, pointing to the right. "Or it could be that way," he continued, pointing to the left. "I'm not entirely completely certain."

"Ugh," I moaned. Great, i was stuck with a brain-dead idiot. Thoroughly, I inspected my surroundings. To my left stood the hut from which we had just come. Behind this was just field. To my right, however, past the endless fields, I thought I could see a little blue dot moving along the horizon. Surely that couldn't be my imagination? But then again, maybe it was? Finally, I decided that we should take to risk and head towards it. We couldn't get into a worse situation, at least. We were a party made up of a previously cryogenically frozen human, a metal core whose life had been injected into a human body, a girl who hardly knew where she was and needed desperate medical help, and a corpse. How could this possibly get worse? When I looked up, the blue dot was gone (thats how), replaced but a red one. And behind that was a yellow one. And then another red one. And then a green one. What were these dots?

"This way," I told Wheatley, heading in the general direction of these little coloured dots.

Wheatley POV - Chell started walking off to her right, and I followed, completely confused as to my sense of direction. I just didn't know which way we had come. To be honest, I guess I could see why. On the way, I had been a little metal ball carried by Grace. Now, unfortunately, the tables were turned, and i was carrying her. As i remembered this simple act, I hit a wall of grief. She had been so kind to me. So loyal. She had risked her life on the off chance that I might be right and have a friend still alive in this impossible place of my past. And yet, here I was, carrying her body to God knows where with no idea how to get her back to her family.

Chell was giving me a curiously worried look when I realised I had stopped following her.

"Are you ok?" She asked me.

"Yea yea. I'm fine. Just thought of something, thats all," I told her, keeping my eyes pointedly focused downwards.

"Ok," she said, seeming, reluctantly, to let the subject drop for now. We had more pressing matters to deal with. She carried on walking and I followed.

Chell POV - We continued to walk for about 3 hours, over field after field after field. Finally we reached the place I had previously spotted. It was a road, and the dots were cars. The cars were different to how I remembered them. Now, they had music pouring from their windows and poshly fitted electronic systems. I decided to proceed along the road. All roads had to lead somewhere, right?

We had been walking along the road for about 20 minutes when a car pulled over next to us. I stopped, and with me so did Tammy and Wheatley. The look in Wheatley's eyes was curious and fascinated and full of enthusiasm for the cars. I guessed that he had never seen a car before. A car door slammed in front of me. From the car, a little old woman had emerged. She seemed to be roughly 65 years old and a bit...not really with it.

"Would you like a lift, dearies?" She asked us, in her elderly, famine voice. Her short grey hair bounced around on her head as she advanced on us, with a slight limp in her step and a vacant expression. "Oh," she said, looking a Grace's body. At first I thought she was disgusted or shocked or both, but when her expression creased into a smile, I realised I was wrong. "Is your little friend sleeping, dear?" She inquired, resting one of her wrinkled, boney hands on my arm.

"Errr...yes," I lied smoothly. "Actually, we were hoping to find a hospital. Could you possible take us to the nearest one?"

"Of course, dearie. I was heading that way myself." Surprise, surprise. "It should only take about 5 minutes. Get in and we'll be off." I got into the car, pulling Tammy in after me onto the back seat, and gestured for Wheatley to do the same. He seemed to be very unsure of what to do. "In you get, dearie," the little old lady prompted. After what seemed like hours of contemplation, Wheatley got into the car. And we were off. But to where exactly, in what district of the country, was a mystery.


	12. Chapter 12 The Results

AN/ ... just like say I hope you had an amazing Christmas and a great New Year. Happy 2013, everyone. :)

Chapter 12 - The Results

Chell POV - We traveled for about an hour along winding country roads before entering a town. It was a nice little town with old victorian-style buildings. In fact, it was more like a village than a town. We passed several 'For Sale' signs outside houses, and eventually came to the outskirts on the other side of this village. A few more minutes down the road and we arrived at a big hospital. The car park was overflowing with vehicles and people trying to get to the hospital entrance. This must be the only hospital within at least a 10 mile radius. The old woman drove around the car park aimlessly, passing quite a few empty parking spaces. I was started to wonder if she was ever going to stop the car when we were made to stop. An ambulance pulled out of a tiny, invisible road just in front of us, that must have lead around to the back of the hospital. However, the little old woman, who it was very apparent was not quite mentally present, didn't even take her foot off the accelerator. It seemed, as we approached the ambulance, which was completely oblivious to our rapid approach, everything happened in slow motion. The front of the car hit the ambulance first, and as i watched, the force of the impact smashed the windscreen. A thousand little pieces of glass flew in all directions, some imbedding themselves in the old lady's flesh. Some of the pieced flew towards me, put i didn't feel the impact. It was only apparent that i had been hit when little dots started to appear in my vision. Slowly i reached up and touched my head. It felt warm, wet. I looked at my fingers. They were red with blood. The dots increased, filling up my full vision, and then engulfed me completely, blocking me from the outside world. And a horrified, clueless Wheatley.

Wheatley POV - She was bleeding. And i couldn't stop it. I had ripped off my shirt and pressed the fabric on the cut on her forehead, desperate for her to stop bleeding. After all she'd been through, after all we'd been through...she couldn't leave me now. Of course, I had no idea how bad the injury was, so I just assumed the bad. Best to be prepared for the worse. A few bits of glass were stuck in my forearm, but I really didn't care. They could take up a constant residence in there, for all I cared, as long as Chell was safe. Why did she have to move Tammy to the window seat? If she had just stayed there, this wouldn't of happened to her. But then it would have happened to Tammy. I instantly regretted valuing Chell over Tammy. After all, what right did I have to do that? They were both equal soles. Both lives. By now, there were people rushing towards us to help. They were all wearing either white or blue, which I found odd. Did they not have they're own clothes to wear or something? They were trying to get me out of this...car...thing...but I wasn't going anywhere without Chell.

Chell POV - Pressure on my head alerted me to my injury. The sterile smell of hospital reached my nose, and I was instantly reminded of the place from which I had escaped. I bolted upright, expecting to see an evil yellow optic above me. But there wasn't.

"Calm," Wheatley whispered in my ear. And somehow I did.

"I thought..." I panted. "I thought-"

"I know, luv. It reminded me of that too."

"But I thought I was..."

"But you're not. Nobody here is going to try to kill you. I can't say they won't hurt you though. At least thats what HE says," He said the last part angrily, looking pointedly to a doctor in the corner of the white, sterile room. He was short, but skinny, and wore round glasses which fitted well with his round, child-like face. Sunlight bounced off his shiny, bald head, distracting me from reality. But only for a second.

"What happened?" I asked, referring to my injury.

"You were in a car accident," the doctor responded, obviously misunderstanding my question.

"No, I know that. I mean, what happened to my head?"

"A large piece of glass entered it. You were hit pretty hard, which is why you were rendered unconscious."

"Oh," was all I could manage to say.

"Don't you want to know what happened to your aunt?" The doctor asked, after I was silent for a few minutes.

"My aunt?" I asked, confused. When the doctor gave me a strange look, I added, "You mean the old lady that was driving the car?"

"Yes."

"She's not my aunt."

"Oh. Its just, we took samples of both your blood and the molecular structure of your DNA was very very similar. And you have similar features. She's not your mother, because your molecular structure was not quite THAT similar, but she is definitely related to you in some way."

"You mean...?"

"You are related to the other woman. I would have thought you were aware, since you were together. I might be wrong but its almost impossible for you not to be related, considering the scientific evidence." I didn't respond. All I did was stare open mouthed at this man. My aunt? I had no family. I was an orphan. My parents abandoned me. How could I have an aunt? This wasn't happening. It couldn't be. I had no family.

"Thank you Doctor," Wheatley said, interrupting my train of thought. He sounded frustrated. Angry even.

"Oh," the Doctor muttered. "I'll be leaving you then." And he turned and left the room.

"An aunt," I stammered, still not quite able to understand.

"What's an aunt?" Wheatley asked, suddenly back to his normal, clueless self.

"Its the sister of your mother or father," I told him.

"Oh." He seemed just as overwhelmed as I was. "But you can't have an aunt. You have no parents."

"I know, Wheatley. But why would the Doctor lie? I've never met him before now. He doesn't even know me. And if he's not lying, then he had either made a very large mistake, which is unlikely, or is telling the truth."

"What are we going to do?" Wheatley asked. For some irrational reason, I liked that he said 'we'. It meant that he wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. Not that he had anywhere to go.

"I guess we just assume that it's true. We should talk to the old woman first though, see if she had a sister and if so, if that sister ever abandoned a child. Then we will know the truth. But for now, we should just assume its true. There is no other explanation."

Wheatley looked thoughtful, when my gaze met his eyes again. But he didn't seem to be thinking about my 'aunt'.

"Wheatley?" I asked, worried. "Wheatley, are you ok?"

"I was just thinking..." he began.

"Well, thats rare," I said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood.

"Ha ha," he said sarcastically. "Anyway, i was just thinking about how similar this place is to...to...That Place. They're both white and sterile, both cause pain, and both are scary."

"One big difference though," I said trying to change the subject. It had already scared my once today. "This place won't kill us."

"I guess they wouldn't mean to if they did," he mumbled. "What is this place anyway? All they told me were that the people in white were called Doctors, and the rest of the staff were Nurses, and that they would help you to recover."

"Its a hospital," I said, matter-of-factly.

"A hospi-what?"

"A hospital. This is where humans go if they're really sick or injured. Its sort of like a repair center or something. They make people better. If they can that is." He looked worried when i said this, so i quickly added on, "and 99% of the time they can" to reassure him. Wheatley's beautiful new features relaxed at this information. All of a sudden, i felt like I have never seen him before, or met him. This was a new Wheatley. Same, but new. And he was perfect.


	13. Chapter 13 Telling Them

Chapter 13 - Telling Them

4 Days Later

Chell POV - Nothing seemed real anymore. It was like I was living in a dream. A dream where I was free. Finally, completely, utterly free! Of course the world had changed since I was last a part of it. New technology was being used, such as the 'mobile phone' and a 'Nintendo DS' (whatever one of those was). But that wasn't the real difference. The real difference was that I had a family now, and friends, and a future.

But before my life began, Wheatley and I had to do a very important, possibly dangerous task. We had to tell Grace's parents what had happened.

As I emerged from the hospital, into the beautiful sunlight of British summer, I caught sight of Wheatley, leaning casually against a silver hire car, trying to look as if he knew what he was doing. The truth was that I had had to explain to Wheatley the basics of being human, which was surprisingly difficult, considering I've always been human. I explained that you had to eat 3 meals a day: one at the start of that day called breakfast, one around noon, called lunch, and one in the evening, which was tea or dinner, depending on what you preferred to call it. He was surprised at this.

"You - We really have to eat 3 times a day?" He had asked, with a genuinely startled look on his face.

"Yes," I had replied, "and you also have to drink roughly two litres of water a day to keep your body hydrated. And you have to go to the toilet to get all of the waste out of your body that it doesn't use from the food and drink"

"Wow, being human sounds like hard work," Wheatley had said.

Now, it was starting to come a bit more naturally to him. Occasionally he would forget to eat, but otherwise he seemed to be ok.

The woman who drove us to the hospital, who I recently discovered was actually my aunt, was standing next to Wheatley, waiting for me. She had not been healthy mentally when she arrived at the hospital, but was discharged a day before I was, as the doctor said she would be fine as long as she took her medication. Personally, I'm not convinced.

Tammy was already in the car. She had no serious injuries, but was hardly talking to any of us. After what she had been through, I couldn't blame her. Losing her closest friend. I walked over to the little party waiting for me.

"How are you doing, luv?" Wheatley greeted me immediately. Over the time we had been at the hospital, we had bonded even more, especially since I was now talking to him. It seemed that I had missed out on a lot of good conversation with him through being a mute in... That Place. We were probably closer to boyfriend and girlfriend than just best friends now, which was a good thing for me. I couldn't imagine being with anyone else apart from Wheatley, even if he didn't feel the same way about me.

"I'm ok thanks," I replied to him, with finality. Wheatley had a habit of asking several times to make sure it was true.

"Are you sure -" he started, just as I had predicted.

"Wheatley," I interrupted him, "I'm fine. Honestly. So where are we going?" We had to go talk to Grace's parents, but I didn't know if we were stopping at a restaurant first or not.

"To see Grace's family," my aunt, who's name a recently learned to be Christie, replied. I scrambled to the back seat of the car quickly, pulling Wheatley in behind me. Tammy had taken the front seat of the car, but I wanted to be with Wheatley anyway so it was fine by me. We travelled mostly in silence, not wanting to discuss what we would say to Grace's parents when we got there in front of Tammy, but not being able to think about anything else. Occasionally someone would comment on the song that was playing, or a pretty house, all minor things. What could we possible discuss when we were about to tell some parents that their child was dead?

After about ten minutes we arrived at Grace's house. Tammy had given the directions in quiet whispers, reluctant to speak at all. She seemed to be in a state of shock, and grief. Nothing we had done could pull her out of this trance. As I stepped out of the car, my hands began to shake. Wheatley quickly came to my side and looked at me nervously. I returned the look with a nervous glance of my own. He met my eyes, and we both knew that we were equally scared of what we were about to do. I grabbed Wheatley's hand and we started toward the red front door of Tammy's house.

Wheatley POV - Chell's comforting hand clutched mine nervously as we walked towards the front door of the house. This holding hands must be a human custom, because I was not expecting Chell to grab mine the way she did. However it was a good custom. It gave me confidence, strength. The front garden was filled with constant bushes, making it more of a front bush than a front garden. The windows had white lining around them and there were two square red doors in the brick to the right of the front door.

"What are those doors?" I asked Chell, indicating to the red squares. For all I knew, they could lead to an underground hide out or a cryogenic storage chamber or a test from -

"It's a garage," Chell told me, cutting off my train of thought. "It's where human's store their cars or gardening equipment or food that they can't fit in the house. Basically anything they can't fit or don't want in the house or outside."

"So like a rubbish room?" This was a bit disappointing after what I had been imagining.

"Sort of." We had reached the front door now. Chell reached out and pressed a button attached to the brick. I guessed it alerted the residents of the house that we were here. Suddenly the door flew open, catching me by surprise, although I should have expected it. We did want to go in, after all, and we weren't going to climb in through the window, that's for sure.

"Hello," the person at the door addressed us hesitantly. She was a rather tall lady, maybe in her forties. Her dyed blonde hair was cut short and traced the outline of her face. It was obvious that this was Grace's mother. "Tammy?" She asked, looking past us to where Tammy was standing awkwardly, a little way away from us. Nobody was saying anything, so I thought I had better say something. We weren't here to stand staring at each other.

"Hi," I spoke in a confident voice, although I didn't feel at all confident. "I am Wheatley, and this is Chell, Christie and, well, you know Tammy. We have just come to alert you of your dau-" Chell cut me off quickly, giving me a disapproving look. What had I done wrong? I was only going to tell her that her daughter was dead. She was going to find out anyway.

"May we come in?" Chell asked gently, in her beautiful soothing voice.

"Erm... Of course," Grace's mother replied uncertainly, and moved aside to make room for us to pass. Once inside, we found ourselves in a hallway. "In there," Grace's mother indicated to a door on the left, which lead to a living area. We sat down on the sofas that lined two of the four walls.

"You may want to sit down," Chell said to her, and she did. "Let me do the talking," Chell whispered to me sternly, shooting a warning glance my way. Surely I couldn't mess it up that much, could I? Raising her voice from the whisper she had used to me, Chell addressed Grace's mother. "There is a hidden science laboratory, not far from here," she began, careful to use formal language. She went on to explain how I had fallen into Grace's garden (I had explained the story at the hospital) and what had happened up until the point where we found Grace. "When we found her, there was nothing we could do. I'm so so sorry, but your daughter is no longer with us." Grace's mother just stared at us for a moment, letting the news sink in. Then she let out a horrific, agonising scream of realisation, and crumbled to the floor. It was at that moment that her (who I assume to be) husband appeared at the door way. He must have just came in without my noticing. His startled expression showed just how shocked he was.

"What is going on here?!" he questioned in a loud, booming voice. Chell quickly filled him in with the same story she had just told his wife, and he, too, crumbled to the floor, engulfing his wife in an embrace of screams and tears and shock. Chell motioned to me to leave the room, and I did. She and Christie quickly joined me in the hallway. Tammy remained in the room. She belonged here, with the grieving family. Here she could grieve herself.

"We should leave some contact details," Chell suggested. I guess we shouldn't really just leave, after what we had told Graces family. I couldn't imagine having a family, but to lose a child must be the worst feeling in the world. Just the reactions of Grace's parents were painful to watch. I could still hear them, in their world of grief.

"I'll leave my phone number," Christie suggested. She had taken her, what were apparently called, pills today, so she seemed quite sane. "You two don't have any contact details so we don't have much choice." Leaving the piece of paper with the phone number and our names on (which we stole from a little pot on a desk in the hallway) clearly visible, we slipped out of the front door and back to the car. As we walked the short distance to the car, Chell took my hand again. Her touch sent a voltage up my arm like I've never felt before. What was this strange new feeling?


End file.
